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Coast Guard rescues Safety Harbor man

By Times Staff
Published May 2, 2005

The Coast Guard rescued a 73-year-old man who suffered heart problems Sunday while on a boat 40 miles west of Sarasota, authorities said.

Vernon Jackson of Safety Harbor was sailing on the 37-foot Maltese Cross as part of a regatta from St. Petersburg to Mexico on Saturday afternoon. The boat ran into severe weather Saturday night and lost its ability to steer. The vessel stopped for the night 40 miles west of Sarasota. The captain of the vessel contacted the Coast Guard about 3 a.m., when Jackson began to have heart and respiratory problems, the Coast Guard said. The inclement weather prevented the Coast Guard from readily locating the boat, said Lt. Micah Acree with the Coast Guard in Clearwater.

About 9 a.m., the Coast Guard fixed the boat's location and dispatched a helicopter. Jackson was delivered to Tampa General Hospital at 3:15 p.m., Acree said. His condition was stable. A rescue boat from the Coast Guard station at Sand Key was scheduled to tow the Maltese Cross into Clearwater Pass.

TAMPA - A man died Sunday afternoon after he leapt from the Sunshine Skyway bridge, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies said.

The man, whose identity deputies have not released, jumped from the bridge's center span at 3:53 p.m., deputies said.

Twelve minutes later, in what appears to be an unrelated incident, a woman attempted to jump from the southbound lane near the top of the Skyway, Florida Highway Patrol officers said. That attempt was thwarted by a trooper.

The woman, whose identity was not released, was taken into custody under the state Baker Act.

[Last modified May 2, 2005, 01:35:17]